Station life an exacting existence

Planning is key when you live on a 40,000ha station bordered on one side by a lake, surrounded by snowy peaks, and the only road in is at least an hour's drive. Sarah Harvey experienced isolation and working life at Mt Nicholas Station.

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"That's the last jar of plum jam," Kate Cocks says as I spread the fruit-filled preserve thickly on my toast.

"Lucky it's almost plum season again."

Food has been on her mind a lot in the past 24 hours, it would seem.

This line of thought runs from the russet-coloured hens that scramble out of their house to scratch the lush grass, to the rows of sprouting vegetables and ready-to-burst berries in the large kitchen garden, and on to more pressing issues such as broken down freezers and the imminent arrival of 500kg of meat and the on-site cook requiring more supplies to feed hungry young shepherds.

Tucked behind the family homestead, where Kate's parents Lynda and Robert Butson still live, is a heavily stocked store where boxes are filled with cooking and baking essentials to restock pantry shelves.

When your "driveway" alone is more than an hour from the state highway these are things you need to think about.

Planning is a way of life at Mt Nicholas Station - a sprawling 40,000ha property on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, where 2300 Hereford cattle and 27,000 merino sheep are the responsibility of the 10 staff who run the station.

"We run a very simple system.

"We need to strike the right balance of staff otherwise we would all be living in each other's pockets," Mrs Cocks says.

She and husband Jack (both 33) live in a small redeveloped house with a million-dollar view on the lakefront.

Her parents' house is short walk up the hill.

Couple Bruce Collins and Adrian McNatty run a lodge in the old homestead, there are two full-time shepherds and a husband and wife who look after the cooking and the handyman jobs.

Mrs Cocks has been back at her family's farm for about a year, having lived the corporate life throughout the world for about 12 years.

Her brother Dave had managed the station while she was away but he had since gone to Australia to be a commercial helicopter pilot.

Her parents are still heavily involved with the running of the farm, although less so than when they first bought the property about 33 years ago.

Owning a high country station had been a dream of Mr Butson's for many years.

He had long held a fondness for Mt Nicholas Station, acquired during numerous tramping, hunting and fishing trips.

He approached the then owners, the Hunt family, and said, "If you are ever selling ask me first."

And that they did.

With new baby Kate, Robert and Lynda upped sticks from Garston, in Southland, and moved to the isolated station, where the only access was by boat or a dusty, gravel road.

The Butsons took a big risk in buying the station.

At that stage the farm was only running about 10,000 stock units - well below potential.

The first 15 years involved a lot of work clearing scrub, over-sowing fields and spreading fertiliser, as well as getting the stock numbers up.

"If you love living here, it is the sort of place you never want to leave.

"It has been a big part of our working life," Mr Butson said.

In the early years, a boat would dock at their wharf three days a week to drop them much-needed supplies and mail.

This service dried up years ago, but the family now have their own boat, in which they can cross Lake Wakatipu in 25 minutes, and in the summer peak the steamship TSSEarnslaw docks at neighbouring Walter Peak Station six times a day.

Most of their food is trucked in on a well-maintained public road.

But it is the little luxuries, like ultra-heat-treated cream to pour on the rhubarb crumble, that make life living in a harsh environment bearable.